<p>This specification documents the vCard-XML format currently in use within the Jabber community. A future specification will recommend a standards-track protocol to supersede this informational document.</p>
<p>The basic functionality is for a user to store and retrieve an XML representation of his or her vCard using the data storage capabilities native to all existing Jabber server implementations. This is done by by sending an <iq/> of type "set" (storage) or "get" (retrieval) to one's Jabber server containing a <vCard/> child scoped by the 'vcard-temp' namespace, with the <vCard/> element containing the actual vCard-XML elements as defined by the vCard-XML DTD. Other users may then view one's vCard information.</p>
<p>vCards are an existing and widely-used standard for personal user information storage, somewhat like an electronic business card. The vCard format is defined in &rfc2426;.</p>
<p>In 1998 and 1999, Frank Dawson submitted four revisions of an Internet-Draft proposing to represent the standard vCard format in XML. When the jabberd open-source project was originally looking for a method to store personal user information, the most recent revision consulted by the jabberd developers was draft-dawson-vcard-xml-dtd-01 <note>This document is archived at <<linkurl='http://www.watersprings.org/pub/id/draft-dawson-vcard-xml-dtd-01.txt'>http://www.watersprings.org/pub/id/draft-dawson-vcard-xml-dtd-01.txt</link>>.</note>. He also submitted a -02 revision on November 15, 1998 <note>This document is archived at <<linkurl='http://www.watersprings.org/pub/id/draft-dawson-vcard-xml-dtd-02.txt'>http://www.watersprings.org/pub/id/draft-dawson-vcard-xml-dtd-02.txt</link>>.</note> and a -03 revision on June 22, 1999 <note>This document is archived at <<linkurl='http://www.watersprings.org/pub/id/draft-dawson-vcard-xml-dtd-03.txt'>http://www.watersprings.org/pub/id/draft-dawson-vcard-xml-dtd-03.txt</link>>.</note>.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, Dawson's proposal did not move forward within the IETF's standards process. For reasons now lost in the mists of time, the Jabber project continued to use the DTD from draft-dawson-vcard-xml-dtd-01, making two small modifications to adapt it for use within the Jabber community (adding the JABBERID and DESC elements) but also specifying element names in all caps rather than lowercase as defined in draft-dawson-vcard-xml-dtd-01. In addition, the Jabber community followed the usage (but not DTD) in that draft regarding version information, including it as an attribute of the vCard element rather than as a child element. This format was implemented within the Jabber community under the 'vcard-temp' namespace.</p>
<p>A user retrieves his or her own vCard by sending an IQ-get with no 'to' address and containing a <vCard/> child element qualified by the 'vcard-temp' namespace.</p>
<p>If no vCard exists, the server MUST return a stanza error (which SHOULD be ¬found;) or an IQ-result containing an empty <vCard/> element.</p>
<p>A user may publish or update his or her vCard by sending an IQ of type "set" with no 'to' address, following the format in the previous use case.</p>
<p>Notice that the previous IQ-set included only one changed element (the <DESC/> element). Currently there is no method for partial updates of a vCard, and the entire vCard must be sent to the server in order to update any part of the vCard.</p>
<p>If a user attempts to perform an IQ set on another user's vCard (i.e., by setting a 'to' address to a JID other than the sending user's bare JID), the server MUST return a stanza error, which SHOULD be &forbidden; or ¬allowed;.</p>
<p>In accordance with &xmppcore;, a compliant server MUST respond on behalf of the requestor and not forward the IQ to the requestee's connected resource.</p>
<p>If no vCard exists or the user does not exist, the server MUST return a stanza error, which SHOULD be either &unavailable; or ¬found; (but the server MUST return the same error condition in both cases to help prevent directory harvesting attacks).</p>
<p>Note: The use of vCards is not limited to accounts associated with human users. For example, an XMPP server could itself have a vCard that defines the server's hosting organization, physical location, and relevant contact addresses.</p>
<p>If an entity supports the vcard-temp protocol, it MUST report that by including a service discovery feature of "vcard-temp" &NSNOTE; in response to a &xep0030; information request:</p>
<examplecaption="Service Discovery Information Request"><